MULTICENTER VALIDATION OF AN MMSE-MOCA CONVERSION TABLE

Abstract

Accumulating evidence point to the superiority of the MoCA over the MMSE as a cognitive screening tool. Yet, since the MMSE has established itself as a gold-standard proxy of cognitive function over the years, the transition from the MMSE to the MoCA is limited by the absence of a reliable conversion table between both tests. We retrospectively examined the MMSE-MoCA relationship in a large multicenter sample gathered from memory clinics in Quebec, Canada (1492 patients, 1942 visits) and the ADNI dataset (1202 patients, 4288 visits). We then produced conversion table from the MoCA scores (uncorrected for education) to MMSE scores using the equi-percentile method with log-linear smoothing and evaluated its accuracy over the spectrum of MoCA scores. The MoCA→MMSE conversion table is reliable for MoCA scores of 20 and over, and is not significantly influenced by age, education and diagnosis. The table is unreliable when MoCA <20 (<50% of MMSE scores in a ±1 range of predicted score, mean deviation >2).